0:00:08 > 0:00:11After the destruction of the Reformation and English Civil War,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15the 18th century is often seen as genteel and uneventful.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23In this Jane Austen world, churches are quiet, their clergymen dull.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26But the real story of the 18th-century church
0:00:26 > 0:00:29is far, far more interesting than that.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36The century after the Civil War was an exhilarating collision
0:00:36 > 0:00:38between authority...
0:00:38 > 0:00:40This brings out the revolutionary in me.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43..and exuberance...
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Here, the lion and the unicorn have come to life,
0:00:46 > 0:00:47and they're fighting each other.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52..and for the first time brought a choice in how to worship.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57They would go backwards into the water. It must have been incredibly powerful.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59I'm Richard Taylor.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02I write books about the messages hidden in Britain's churches.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05I believe these buildings can connect us
0:01:05 > 0:01:08with our ancestors' deepest beliefs.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12The 17th and 18th centuries were an age of reason and enlightenment,
0:01:12 > 0:01:17when dogma was challenged and scientific discoveries celebrated.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22And Britain's churches reflected that new world too.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26It was a period of extraordinary confidence and creativity.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30To explore these churches is to understand
0:01:30 > 0:01:34what made the 18th century so dynamic.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49The impact of the Civil War on English churches didn't end
0:01:49 > 0:01:52when Puritans destroyed the last statue and crucifix.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57It continued to change things in subtle but significant ways.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02It even altered how people wanted to be portrayed after their death.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07For centuries, the dead had been depicted lying in prayer
0:02:07 > 0:02:10and waiting for the day of resurrection.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Then, abruptly, they began to appear bolt upright,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17and looking more like Romans than Britons.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21It's a style that would dominate our churches for the next century.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30They're amazing.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34To understand this change, I'm visiting the tombs of the Earls of Rutland
0:02:34 > 0:02:37that fill the chancel at St Mary's.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39These monuments, stylistically,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41must have looked completely knockout
0:02:41 > 0:02:44when they first were installed in this church in the 1680s.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46They must have looked as amazing as,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48you know, Tracey Emin looked a few years ago in England.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51RICHARD: They're pretty knockout NOW.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54SIMON WATNEY: These represent a society calming down
0:02:54 > 0:02:59after an appalling nervous breakdown - this awful Civil War with,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03you know, tens of thousands of families torn apart.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06It's not surprising that they were looking for a different style
0:03:06 > 0:03:10to symbolise this new, safer, calmer world.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13You can almost hear them sighing with relief,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15"Please, no more Civil War!"
0:03:17 > 0:03:20'So where did this new style come from?
0:03:20 > 0:03:22'Many aristocratic families who fled the Civil War
0:03:22 > 0:03:25'had headed to the continent.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29'There they were impressed by the classical statues they found.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33'They thought that by adopting the art of Imperial Rome,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35'they could reassert their own status.'
0:03:35 > 0:03:39SIMON WATNEY: These are the beginning of a new style of monument altogether.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42It's their Roman associations that are important here -
0:03:42 > 0:03:45the re-establishment of aristocratic authority,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48the re-establishment of the monarchy
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and persuading people of the stability
0:03:50 > 0:03:54of the whole social structure of Great Britain.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57This is the aristocracy we're seeing here.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02What would more ordinary people have had to remember them?
0:04:02 > 0:04:04We see how the symbols on most of these monuments
0:04:04 > 0:04:07here at Bottesford migrate out of doors,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09as they do throughout the whole of Britain,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13onto tombstones for humbler sorts of people,
0:04:13 > 0:04:18showing lovely, fluttering cherub heads, skulls, of course.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23All the apparatus of 18th-century monuments migrate out of doors
0:04:23 > 0:04:26where they have a fabulous afterlife for ordinary people.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28'Although divided in life,
0:04:28 > 0:04:33'the aristocracy and rank and file of the 18th century
0:04:33 > 0:04:36'shared the symbolism of death.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44'You can get a fascinating insight into the values of the age
0:04:44 > 0:04:47'by looking inside the churches from the time.'
0:04:52 > 0:04:54I wonder what St Mary's, a Norman church,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58given an 18th-century makeover, has to offer?
0:05:03 > 0:05:04Its pews!
0:05:06 > 0:05:08There's pew after pew.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11You can almost smell the smells in here.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13There must have been so many bodies,
0:05:13 > 0:05:18and we're in Whitby, so it must have been a slightly fishy smell too.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21But what the focus of the whole church is on
0:05:21 > 0:05:23is that, the pulpit,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25standing there in the middle.
0:05:27 > 0:05:3318th-century Christians came to church above all to hear the Bible preached.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38So the pulpit was the most important feature of their church.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Whitby's triple-decker version is built so that the minister
0:05:42 > 0:05:46could preach on a level with the newly constructed galleries,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49but also to emphasise his authority.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Each level has a specific function.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Church of England services followed the Book Of Common Prayer,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00with its series of statements by the minister
0:06:00 > 0:06:02and responses by the congregation.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07And here would sit the clerk of the parish, booming out the responses,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12leading the people to stop them mumbling and stumbling over their words.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15At the next level up, the minister would have sat,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18leading the service and reading the lessons from the Bible.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23And the climax of many services was when the minister climbed up here,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27to the pulpit, to declaim his sermon to the galleries
0:06:27 > 0:06:29and the people down below.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33It's got this sounding board to project the voice even further.
0:06:33 > 0:06:39If an earthly king were to issue a proclamation,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43how eager would his subjects be to hear it?
0:06:43 > 0:06:46And shall not we pay the same respect to the King of Kings?
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Amen.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56The congregation at Whitby knew their place.
0:06:56 > 0:07:02This was an ordered church, with pews for every rank of society.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06And they could be bought or leased like property.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10But how did they come to be so important?
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Pews were in fact quite a recent innovation.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18For hundreds of years, people had simply stood on an earth floor
0:07:18 > 0:07:21which was covered in straw and herbs.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Then, as sermons became more common in the 14th century,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30benches were introduced, often with elaborately carved ends.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35But it was in the 18th century that you began to see these -
0:07:35 > 0:07:39the box pews, with high backs and fronts.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The most exclusive might even have cushions,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46armchairs, a fireplace.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51What can seem difficult is the sense of segregation,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55of being boxed in to your own personal space.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00But they're simply an expression of the highest values of the time -
0:08:00 > 0:08:03of property and of family.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10St Mary's has one pew that dominates all the others -
0:08:10 > 0:08:14that of the Cholmleys, the local lords of the manor,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17showing that in the 18th century,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20class divisions didn't stop at the church door.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24And the choice of location for their pew was significant.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29It's placed exactly where, in the Middle Ages,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32you would have found the rood, the crucifix, over the chancel,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35guarding the entrance to the altar.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40I have to say I have a problem with this.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42It's one thing looking at these other box pews
0:08:42 > 0:08:48to think of family and property, but this, to replace the crucifix
0:08:48 > 0:08:50with a sign of the squirearchy,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53it brings out the revolutionary in me.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01But of even greater importance than the Cholmleys' monstrous pew
0:09:01 > 0:09:05was this secular symbol, the Royal Coat of Arms.
0:09:05 > 0:09:11Following Charles II's return from exile in 1660,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14the Church of England had reinforced the monarchy's restoration
0:09:14 > 0:09:20by ensuring that the arms were displayed in every parish church.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24By this stage, there's no distinction between Church and State,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28they are an exuberant confirmation of Englishness and of faith.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33They'd often be painted by the same person who might have done
0:09:33 > 0:09:38the local sign for the inn, and they've got that rough and ready feel to them.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42You can tell from these that the 18th century wasn't embarrassed
0:09:42 > 0:09:45about showing what sex the lion and the unicorn might be.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50Indeed, they're often portrayed as being rather prominently virile.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54This, in heraldic terms, is known as being "pizzled".
0:09:56 > 0:10:00But if your local church's lion and unicorn have lost their "authority",
0:10:00 > 0:10:02blame the Victorians.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05They were quick to de-pizzle them.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25St Mary's is a fine example of a medieval church
0:10:25 > 0:10:29altered to fit 18th-century sensibilities.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33But what could the brightest minds of the Enlightenment build,
0:10:33 > 0:10:34given a clean slate?
0:10:34 > 0:10:40Not adapting old churches, but creating new ones.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58HE CHUCKLES
0:10:59 > 0:11:01What a view!
0:11:01 > 0:11:05What a climb, but what a view!
0:11:05 > 0:11:10It's like the whole of London is laid out before you.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14And it's from here that you can see the full...
0:11:14 > 0:11:18glory of the English London churches.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24St Benet's, St Nicholas, its tower like a little bugle.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27St Sepulchre at the end of the Old Bailey.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Christ Church down here, one that was bombed.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Only the tower left now, but what a tower!
0:11:33 > 0:11:38And conversations going on all the time between these steeples.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41St Mary-le-Bow where the Bow Bells sound,
0:11:41 > 0:11:47and just along from it, the simplicity of St Vedast's.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Most of these churches owe their existence
0:11:51 > 0:11:54to the long, hot summer of 1666 -
0:11:54 > 0:11:57a fire that began at the King's bakers in Pudding Lane,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00and a strong easterly wind.
0:12:00 > 0:12:0280 churches were lost.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05But even before the ashes had cooled,
0:12:05 > 0:12:10Londoners realised that the Great Fire had given them a wonderful opportunity
0:12:10 > 0:12:14to experiment with religious architecture and interiors.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Sir Christopher Wren,
0:12:16 > 0:12:22friend of Charles II, mathematician and High Anglican, was put in charge.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28St Paul's Cathedral is the prime example of his singular vision,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32but his new churches reveal their own stories.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41Tucked away in the City, these churches are easily overlooked.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44But they're treasure houses,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47revealing not just the attitudes of the time towards religion,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49but also its passion for learning,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53for disciplines such as archaeology and geometry.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11This is a Wren church,
0:13:11 > 0:13:16almost exactly as it would have been in Wren's day.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20One of the most striking things about this church
0:13:20 > 0:13:24is what's been given the greatest prominence of all,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26up there at the very top of the ceiling.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30It's Hebrew.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33It's Hebrew for Jehovah - Yahweh - the Holy name of God.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40God has been changed from being represented by a picture
0:13:40 > 0:13:46with its dangerous association with Popish idolatry, into a word,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49and so safe for both angels and Protestants to worship.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55You rarely found Hebrew in a church before this period,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59because they're displaying their learning.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01This was the Age of the Enlightenment,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04and that learning is reflected in a place like this.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08The classical forms of the Greeks and Romans,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11the pillars, the geometric shapes of the windows,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14all brought in to reflect
0:14:14 > 0:14:17the reason, the reasonableness of faith.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20The greatest scientist of the age, Sir Isaac Newton,
0:14:20 > 0:14:25was as comfortable writing about theology as he was writing about science.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28These things weren't mutually exclusive,
0:14:28 > 0:14:33they were brought together, and they were brought together in this church.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03This London church was designed by an assistant of Wren's,
0:15:03 > 0:15:08Nicholas Hawksmoor, and it displays a big new idea about church-building
0:15:08 > 0:15:13that harked back to an entirely different era.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16In the early 18th century, there was a fascination
0:15:16 > 0:15:20with the ancient churches of the Near East, places like Syria,
0:15:20 > 0:15:22where before the rise of Islam,
0:15:22 > 0:15:28there had been a rash of building of churches and monasteries and basilicas.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Hawksmoor was trying to replicate those ancient buildings
0:15:32 > 0:15:38and capture the massive weight and grandeur of the temples.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Keystones outside the lower windows suggesting a far bigger window
0:15:42 > 0:15:47pressed deep down into the earth, as if the ancient pagan temples
0:15:47 > 0:15:53are being pressed in under the glory of this great new church.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57What they were trying to build was, in Hawksmoor's words,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01"A church as it was in the purest times of Christianity."
0:16:01 > 0:16:07And by doing so, they'd leap over the fighting of the past,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and they'd also leap over the taint of Rome.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15This church may be influenced by foreign architecture,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18but it is still loyally English.
0:16:18 > 0:16:24On top of the steeple, King George I stands proudly above the Royal Arms.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29But here, the lion and the unicorn have come to life,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33and they're fighting each other for possession of the Royal Crown.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38It shows amazing confidence, even playfulness,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43with this most ancient symbol of Englishness.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45This and other Hawksmoor churches
0:16:45 > 0:16:50were built out of a tax on coal coming into the Port of London.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55I love the idea that a church as airy and glorious as this one
0:16:55 > 0:16:59was built on something so earthly and dark and basic.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15St Mary Woolnoth, also designed by Hawksmoor,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19shows that although the new churches were influenced by the Enlightenment,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22if you look hard enough, you'll still find imagery
0:17:22 > 0:17:25that would have been at home in the Middle Ages.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29The four Evangelists on the font.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33The Holy Spirit as a dove.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36And now, placed above an altar and gilded,
0:17:36 > 0:17:41the pelican feeding her young with her blood, representing Jesus's sacrifice.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46But most of all, you can find angels.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49These cherubs convey holiness,
0:17:49 > 0:17:54but in such an ordered way that they seem decorative as much as symbolic.
0:17:57 > 0:17:58They've come a long way
0:17:58 > 0:18:03since angels first appeared in our churches in the 9th century.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09For the Anglo-Saxons, angels were terrifying symbols of victory.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13For medieval people, they were guardians.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16The Puritans hated angels so much
0:18:16 > 0:18:20that they hunted them down, destroying them, burning them.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25And then, in the 18th century, in a twist of the wheel of fashion,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27this happens to them.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35You can almost feel the real angels, those powerful creatures up on high,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38holding their heads in their hands with the ignominy of it all.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50You don't need a devastating fire
0:18:50 > 0:18:53to start designing a church from scratch.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56The Reformation in Scotland was just as fierce,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00and it meant that they could experiment across the whole country
0:19:00 > 0:19:01with the shape of their churches.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06But they chose a style of building and worship that was more austere
0:19:06 > 0:19:08than their English neighbours.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13Let's come in now and I'll show you,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15this is a very different form of church
0:19:15 > 0:19:17- from anything you've been used to. - Gosh, it is, isn't it?
0:19:17 > 0:19:21It's a completely different shape and layout.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Yes. Well, after the Reformation, for a long time they didn't build
0:19:25 > 0:19:27new churches and they made use of the older buildings.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31But when they did start to build, they tended to build in this T-shape
0:19:31 > 0:19:34that you've got here with a...
0:19:34 > 0:19:37- One bar there and wings. - Wings on either side.
0:19:37 > 0:19:44The main point was the minister and his pulpit on the middle of the south wall,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47where he could see everybody and everybody could see him.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49Why the south wall?
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Well, I think because it was a long wall,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55and, bearing in mind that the early churches were east and west,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58rectangular, and this gave you space to put the pulpit in
0:19:58 > 0:20:00and have a window on either side of it.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02RICHARD: So he would have had the light behind him.
0:20:02 > 0:20:03The light behind him.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07And if you go to a church where there is no glass in the windows,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10you really are blinded by the light coming in,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12especially at 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14- How intimidating. - It is a bit.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16You've got the light full in your face,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18- nowhere to hide. - And nowhere to hide, indeed.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21All you would have had would have been the pulpit there,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24with the Communion table in front of it.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26There were no pews,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and therefore there was plenty of space.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30So they laid out trestle tables,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34which I imagine would have been set against the Communion table.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40The T-shaped church may have been revolutionary, but within it,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44there was an almost medieval emphasis on sin and repentance.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48The aim was to repress vice and nourish virtue.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54If you transgressed, you had to come before the church
0:20:54 > 0:20:58and confess what you'd done, and repent, obviously.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02And you had to be seen by the rest of the community
0:21:02 > 0:21:04to have done your repentance.
0:21:04 > 0:21:10And occasionally they had something really quite horrible called the "jougs",
0:21:10 > 0:21:14which was a neck collar, and they had to stand outside the church,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16and they couldn't move very far
0:21:16 > 0:21:18because this thing was constraining them round their necks.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21They had to stand in it for about an hour,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23or you had to sit on a repentance stool.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25RICHARD: What crimes might they have committed?
0:21:25 > 0:21:30The one you read of most is fornication.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33That seemed to cause a great deal of trouble.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Doesn't it always!
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Yes. Theft doesn't come into it as often, but this other matter is regular.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45Sometimes they developed double stools, and both parents -
0:21:45 > 0:21:48the new baby was usually the outcome of all of this -
0:21:48 > 0:21:51had to sit on the stool and repent.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54And at the end of the process of repentance, what happened then?
0:21:54 > 0:21:56The person had to be rehabilitated, of course.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00At any rate, there was a kind of warm welcome back to the community.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03So there was a powerful use of space, because you would be separated off
0:22:03 > 0:22:07by an invisible barrier, as it were, here at the front.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11- Then, when you'd paid the price... - You'd melt back into the community.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13- You'd come back in. - Yes.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17I'm cringing at the idea of it, but it's quite powerful, cathartic stuff.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Oh, yes, and it must have bound society together very strongly.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30For almost 1,000 years,
0:22:30 > 0:22:35the parish churches of England and Wales had been without rival.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38But in the 18th century, increasingly,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42they faced competition from other places of worship.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47These weren't illegal, they were sanctioned by Parliament.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50The Toleration Act of 1689
0:22:50 > 0:22:52had acknowledged the right of religious groups,
0:22:52 > 0:22:57such as Baptists and Quakers, to build their own meeting houses and chapels.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Their members, mostly working class,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05disliked the liturgy, decoration and establishment ties
0:23:05 > 0:23:10of the Church of England, and had kept the Puritan dream alive.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14The monopoly of the parish church was over.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Now, Christians had a choice.
0:23:22 > 0:23:28This is the old Baptist chapel in Tewkesbury,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30and you can see,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34just from the layout, there is no preference given,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37everybody is the same distance from the preacher.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41When they needed to get a bit more space,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44they didn't push it out so that people were further away,
0:23:44 > 0:23:49you just built upwards into these galleries around us.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52You can imagine the people hanging over
0:23:52 > 0:23:55while the preacher was doing his thing here.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Baptists, as the name suggests, emphasised the importance of baptism
0:24:02 > 0:24:05as a public declaration of belief in Jesus Christ.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Fonts for infants had been a feature in churches for centuries,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14but Baptists believe it should be an adult decision,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17and that the ceremony should mean total immersion.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21As a result, many of their chapels
0:24:21 > 0:24:25have something quite remarkable under the congregation's feet -
0:24:25 > 0:24:27a baptismal pool.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30I'm going to go down into it,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35but I know that people were baptised here for hundreds of years
0:24:35 > 0:24:39and somehow I feel that I want to take my shoes off before I do this.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46When a new member of the congregation was being baptised,
0:24:46 > 0:24:51the minister would have led them into the baptismal pool....
0:24:53 > 0:24:56..turned them around
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and then they would go backwards into the water,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03complete submersion under the water.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07But it's not just into water, this was a kind of burial
0:25:07 > 0:25:11before they would be brought back up out of the water
0:25:11 > 0:25:15and out of the ground, in a kind of resurrection.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19It must have been incredibly powerful for the person
0:25:19 > 0:25:23who was undergoing this experience, especially in an age of modesty.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27You can almost hear them giving a round of applause.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30It's amazing.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49In the 18th century, by far the most chapels were built by Methodists.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54They were founded by an Anglican clergyman, John Wesley.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58His meetings were originally in the open air or in homes,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02but as congregations grew, especially in industrial towns and cities,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05it was clear that purpose-built chapels were needed.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Oh, this is lovely.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19It's so warm.
0:26:19 > 0:26:25Friendship seems to radiate at you from all around.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29It's the oldest Methodist chapel in continuous use in the world.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31It's in the shape of an octagon.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Some said at the time, "So that the devil would have no corner to hide in."
0:26:36 > 0:26:39But actually, it's a shape that was preferred by John Wesley
0:26:39 > 0:26:45and shows the methodical approach to faith that gave Methodism its name.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49And this isn't a church, it's a chapel.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54John Wesley himself was a lifelong Anglican, who encouraged his members
0:26:54 > 0:26:58to go to the local parish church to take their Communion.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03This was here to complement parish worship, not to compete with it.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07And so, services might be arranged around services held at the parish church,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11and held at odd times of day, five in the morning sometimes.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14The chapel has only subtle decoration,
0:27:14 > 0:27:19these little wreaths at the top of the columns.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21But they're here to beautify the place.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23They don't have a message in themselves,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27they're simply wanting to make this into a fitting place to worship God.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35It's yet another example of the religious creativity of the 18th century.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41I've been so surprised by what I've found in visiting these churches -
0:27:41 > 0:27:47by the riot of pews at St Mary's, by all those monuments at Bottesford
0:27:47 > 0:27:49with their subtle piety,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54by the London churches and their elegance and their learning.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57It's as if the 18th century is refusing to let the likes of me
0:27:57 > 0:28:01pigeonhole them, or put them in a box.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05It's like saying, "don't confuse calm with dull,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09"don't mistake British reserve for a lack of passion".
0:28:09 > 0:28:13If you want to find out what the 18th century was really like,
0:28:13 > 0:28:18don't just read a book, come and visit somewhere like this.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26In the final episode, a challenge from the past shakes the Established Church,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30as a Catholic revival brings a riot of symbolism back
0:28:30 > 0:28:32into the heart of sacred spaces.